Owned by the City of New York, the High Line is a public park maintained, operated, and programmed by Friends of the High Line, in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

Saving the Environment, One Snip at a Time

By Auzelle EpeneterApril 9, 2010

Donated compost material.

Nearly 40,000 grasses, perennials, trees, and shrubs inhabit Section 1 of the High Line, and each plant gets cut back in the spring to allow for new growth. Instead of treating the clippings as garbage, our gardeners have been busy developing ways to reuse them.

Like much of the High Line, our composting approach is, ahem, cutting edge.

Here's how it works. In a traditional garden, compost mixture is spread directly over existing soil. Because of the High Line's decorative layer of gravel mulch, we cannot spread compost straight into the beds. Instead, we create a "compost tea" from the clippings and disperse it into the planting beds in its liquid form.

Right now, our program is still in its beginning stages. We have been donating the park's compostable materials that we can't use to La Plaza Cultural (pictured above) and New York City Department of Sanitation's Fresh Kills compost facility on Staten Island.

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Friends of the High Line raises 98% of the High Line’s annual budget.
Owned by the City of New York, the High Line is a public park maintained, operated, and programmed by Friends of the High Line, in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.